Fishing lures have progressed from an early state of simple metal or wood objects that hopefully would visually appear to be an object fit for consumption by the quarry to the state of the present technology which utilizes plastics and numerous molding and coloring techniques to achieve the sought after simulation of an injured bait fish. The majority of lures are comprised of an injection molded body and a painted design which is both time consuming to apply to the exterior surface of the lure body and subjected to considerable damage in the tackle box, while being retrieved, and if the lure is successful, from the fish's teeth.
Some attempts have been made to protect the surface of the lure and they have met with moderate success but at the cost of the like-like appearance of the final product. For instance, in the prior art attempts have been made to create artificial bait or lures by attaching hooks to a clear plastic tubular container into which a minnow or similar bait fish is inserted. This approach is quite unsuccessful for the bait fish within the plastic container is motionless and in use dragged through the water with no more action than might be expected from a stick. In fact, it is speculated that such lures appear to fish as no more than an inanimate object being dragged through the water.
The state of clear body fish lures was then advanced by the addition of diving planes or other action creating appendages to the clear plastic body and in many instances a replica of the bait fish such as a picture was contained within the clear plastic body. The use of the replica permitted the clear plastic body to be given a more fish-like shape, but still lures of this type did not prove overly successful because the mounting hardware for the action creating appendages and the hook attachment fittings was visible through the clear plastic body and thus the visual image was destroyed.